The grandson of one of the few surviving Accrington Pals has made an appeal from Down Under for more information about the soldier.

Jeremy Havard, who lives in Sydney, Australia is hoping to find out more information about his grandad George Haynes.

Haynes was a touring actor with a London theatre group when he signed up under his stage name Frank McVicars while in Accrington in September 1914.

As one of the original Accrington Pals, George was one of the few soldiers in the battalion who managed to survive after the first day of the devastating Battle of the Somme.

He survived the war and died in Hertfordshire in 1956.

Jeremy said: “He was unusual in that he wasn’t a local but was a touring actor in Accrington from 1913. I think they may have been resident there for several months.

“He joined at the same time as many of the well-known names from this story and his army number is in the same range as those killed and injured. The name Frank McVicars appears in the Accrington Observer and Times newspaper on the day when they marched out of Accrington to begin their journey.”

Jeremy discovered that his grandfather, who was the Sergeant Head of Signals, travelled with the Pals to the Suez Canal zone before arriving at the Somme.

He was later commissioned into the Royal Engineers and met Jeremy’s grandmother while convalescing in East Anglia in 1918.

He was awarded a post-war French commemorative medal inscribed with the words: ‘Battailles de la Somme 1914’.

He can also be seen wearing the coveted 1914/15 Star in a photograph during his time as a Major in command of Hemel Hempstead Home Guard during WWII.

Jeremy said: “I knew nothing about this until I started to research more about the details on his medals, which were stolen from my home in Johannesburg in the early 1990s.

“Unbelievably, these medals cropped up 20 years later in the UK and they just slipped through my hands when I tried to track them down.” Jeremy is asking anyone with information to email inpoint@optus net.com.au .